Paul Hollywood’s ex-wife has decided to keep the baker’s name for the sake of her son.
Cookery writer Alexandra split from the Great British Bake Off judge in 2017 after nearly two decades of marriage, filing for divorce on the grounds that the celebrity baker had committed adultery.
Speaking on ITV’s Loose Women on Thursday, she said she had “grown into” the name and that she knew keeping it was the right decision for their son Josh.
She said: “I’ve been Hollywood for, gosh, probably nearly 20 years. You kind of grow into that name.
“More importantly, I’m getting divorced, but I’m not divorcing my son, he’s a Hollywood. I’m his mum, I’m not going to get rid of his name.
“I am Alex Hollywood, I write as Alex Hollywood and I am Josh Hollywood’s mum.
“That’s the person I am now. That’s the person I’ve grown into and that’s the person I’m going to stay.”
She added: “People can say what they want. I know what’s right for me and I know what’s right for my son.”
Earlier this year District Judge Robert Duddridge held that Paul Hollywood had committed adultery and that Alexandra Hollywood found it “intolerable” to live with him.
He concluded that the marriage had broken down irretrievably and granted a decree nisi.
The couple married in 1998 and split two years ago.
Since their split Paul began a relationship with Summer Monteys-Fullam, who is in her twenties, but they called it quits after she refused to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
A solicitor for Hollywood confirmed he had asked her to sign such an agreement.
Alexandra said having her split play out in the public eye had been “horrendous”.
She said: “Life is good actually. Life is good. It’s been, it has been a difficult couple of years actually.
“It has been tough. But anybody going through divorce is going to understand that. It’s horrendous.
“Divorce is horrible. It’s a really hard, sad thing to go through and you’ve got to go all the way through from start to finish and get through, but you do come out the other side.
“Course it is, course it is (hard for everyone).”
She said she was open to dating again, but was not in a rush.
“I have a very exciting social life,” she said.
“I’ve got wonderful girlfriends who are fantastic. I think for me, the most important thing is I find out who I am first.”
She added: “If it happens, lovely. I’m not like a handbag that’s left on the Tube… no I’m not (on Tinder). I don’t need somebody to say, ‘I’ll have that one’.”